


Inherited Fiancé

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - No supernatural, Arranged Marriage, Coerced Compliance with Said Marriage, John Winchester's A+ Parenting, M/M, Minor Character Death, That's Such a Weird Tag For This Fandom, Unfortunately Canon Fridging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-06-05 01:35:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15159524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: Last Sam had checked, inheritances were supposed be, like, family heirlooms or old debts or something like that.  Who even did arranged marriages anymore?  Sam was a grown man.  There was absolutely no way this was enforceable.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadyShadowphyre](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyShadowphyre/gifts).



> Prompt: “you died and left me on the hook for a hereditary marriage contract”

It was a shame that this was the occasion that brought Sam and Dean back together. Sam had always expected to hear of his father’s death, although he’d expected it to be months after it happened. Apparently, John had tracked him down, and knew his exact address and his girlfriend’s name. A man in a fancy-looking suit had arrived at his doorstep, with a letter announcing John’s death and that both Sam and Jess’s presence was required at the reading of the will. More of a shock – since when did John have an actual will?

Jess hugged him. “Are you gonna go, and do you want me to come?”

“I really don’t care what Dad has to say from beyond the grave, but… Dean will be there, I’m assuming. Maybe, with Dad gone, he’ll be willing to listen and accept that I’m not going back to our old life, but he’s welcome in my new one.” He hugged Jess. “I’m going. I’d like you to come, but if you want to avoid the drama…”

“I’m curious enough about why your dad wanted me there that I’m going. Let’s find out why your dad decided to stalk you, hmm?”

 

The answer had seemed so obvious – John didn’t care, but Dean did, and Dean was the one who hunted down Sam and gathered the information without making contact. Sam gave up on that at Dean’s startled look when he saw Sam walk in with Jess. “Sammy? Dad stalk you too, or did you two make up?”

“Dad stalked me too.” Sam’s face scrunched up. “Too? He had to stalk you? You didn’t stay with him?”

“No, uh… about six months after you left, I met this girl.” Dean gestured to the woman standing beside him. “Cassie, this is my little brother Sam. Sammy, uh… my wife. Cassie.”

Sam’s jaw dropped. “You got married. _You_ got married, over Dad’s objections, after all the talk about how our life didn’t allow for relationships?”

“Yeah. If you hadn’t run off, I probably wouldn’t have, I’d have left it at that when I told Cassie the truth about what we did and she told me to break up with her like a man. Instead, I came back the next day and just kept coming back until she believed that I’d been telling the truth… and that I was walking away. For her.”

“It took him a couple weeks,” Cassie added. “I’m still not entirely sure I believe him about you guys being hit men, but now that your dad’s stalked us to invite us here…”

“Huh. Well, it’s nice to meet you, Cassie. This is my girlfriend, Jessica Moore. She’s a senior at Stanford, like me, on track to graduate with an art degree in June.”

“What about you? What’s your degree in?”

“History with a minor in psychology, pre-law. Hopefully, I’ll get into Stanford’s law school, I’ve got an interview next week.”

“Uh-oh.” Dean put his arm around Cassie. “Lawyer and journalist in the same family? Is that allowed?”

The reunion was interrupted when the man who’d tracked them down came in, carrying a folder. “For the most part, your father’s will is standard, you boys take whatever you want, sell what you don’t, and split the money evenly. He didn’t expect that there would be a problem between you in dividing the assets. The one thing he specified is that the Impala goes to Dean.”

“Well, yeah, that’s because he gave it to me when I was eighteen,” Dean said. “Sam? Law school can’t be cheap.”

“No, but I’ve got a good shot at a full-ride scholarship like I had for undergrad, so don’t worry about my school costs when we’re dividing stuff. Can’t imagine Dad had much that I’d want, but we can go through it together this weekend?”

“Works for me.”

“All right. If you need mediation, you both have my card. So that just leaves the matter of his contract with the Engel family.”

Dean jumped. “Wait, what? Dad had a contract with those bastards? Every time he got drunk he started cursing them out!”

“Yes. I haven’t seen the contract myself, it was to be sealed until called for or John died. Coincidentally, the current head of the Engels called for the contract to be enforced just this week.”

Dean snorted. “Coincidentally my ass. If even a quarter of what Dad said about them was true, they’re probably responsible for his death.”

“Unfortunately, there’s no way to prove that.” The lawyer handed the sealed contract to Dean. “Would you care to do the honors?”

“Nah. Sammy, you’re the lawyer-to-be, you do it.”

Sam took the contract from Dean and broke the seal. He read over it, and then looked up at Dean. “If Dad weren’t dead, I’d kill him myself.”

“Huh?”

“Our whole lives, everything he taught us… we were working for the Engels. They funded us, made sure we had weapons and health care and everything else Dad never would explain how we could afford when food and motels were considered luxuries. In exchange, when Michael decided he was ready, he got to claim one of us as his husband.”

“What the fuck, Dad?” Dean snatched the contract from Sam and read it over himself. “No, seriously, what the fuck. No wonder Dad hated them so bad, wanted to kill them so much, and then never would even consider the idea of moving against them. What happens if neither of us does it? We never agreed to the contract, it can’t be enforceable.”

The lawyer took the contract with a raised eyebrow, and Sam nodded permission for him to read over it. “Legally, no, this is not enforceable, although the Engels could come after you for repayment of all the money they gave your father, and as his heirs you would inherit his debts as well. However, Michael likely has other means to persuade you to honor the deal, if he chooses.”

“Such as?”

The lawyer stared Dean in the eyes. “Such as you seem to think the Engels would have no compunction about killing your father. Do you think they would hesitate to come after your wife and your brother’s girlfriend?”

Jess grabbed Sam’s hand. “John was part of their world. Cassie and I aren’t. Would they really kill a civilian?”

“I don’t know, but it’s not for me to decide if it’s worth testing. That’s for the boys and you ladies to decide.”

Cassie shook her head. “I’m not afraid of bullies. Taking some security measures is a good idea, but I’m not divorcing you, Dean.”

“Same.” Jess leaned against Sam’s shoulder. “I love you. We’re talking about getting married. I’m not scared, and I’m not running.”

 

Sam and Dean had both taken every precaution they could think of to keep Jess and Cassie safe, including moving. So when Sam came home to find Jess’s corpse on his bed with a note, it was a gut punch.

_Darling Sammy,_

_You have one week. Come to Stull, Kansas. Call me to let me know when you arrive. If you don’t, then Dean gets his turn to find his beautiful wife is now a corpse and do the right thing. You wouldn’t inflict that heartbreak on your brother, would you?_  
_Contact Dean. Warn him if you like. My brothers and I aren’t worried. We’ll just find them again._

Sam couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Jess was dead, and Cassie was next unless he got himself to Kansas. Somehow, he couldn’t imagine Michael caring that he had a semester to finish, or a law school interview the next day. Michael’s phone number was at the bottom of the note, but Sam didn’t dare call it. Not yet.

He called Dean, instead. “He killed Jess. If I don’t go to him, Cassie’s next.”

“Get in your car, start driving east. I’ll meet you in Amarillo with Cassie, the three of us can go on the run together.”

“Dean, you and Cassie don’t deserve to spend life on the run. I’m going to Kansas to meet up with Michael. I have no idea what he wants with either of us, but he will never stop hunting us.”

“You don’t deserve a life being his sex slave!” Dean shouted. “Where in Kansas?”

“Stull,” Sam said before he could realize what Dean was thinking. “Dean, there is no way we can kill Michael Engel.”

Dean sighed heavily. “Yeah, I know. I just wanna be at your wedding. I didn’t tell you about mine, thought you hated me after I didn’t stand up to Dad or run with you, and I can’t change that. I can’t stop you, I can’t kill Michael so you don’t have to do this, but I can be at your wedding.”

 

Sam went to his interview. It went well, not that Sam thought it mattered. Immediately after, he flew to Kansas. Dean had driven in from Missouri, and met him at the airport. Together, they drove out to Stull.

Sam didn’t call right away – it was late, he wanted to sleep. What was Michael going to do? He’d been given a week. He called first thing in the morning. “I’m in Stull. Come get me.”

Half an hour later, a van arrived with four men inside. The tallest one got out and walked up to Sam. “Hello, Sam. I’m Michael Engel. These are my brothers Gabriel and Luke, and our priest, Father Joshua. Hello, Dean. It’s nice to meet you both. I have to say, I was surprised when you called.”

“You were?” Sam and Dean said in unison. They looked at each other. Sam continued, “Everything you seem to know about us, and you thought I’d let Cassie die or destroy her and Dean’s life?”

Michael blinked, and his head tilted. “What? Cassie die? What are you talking about? Why would I hurt Cassie?”

“Well, you ki… okay, maybe you didn’t personally kill Jess, but she’s dead.”

“Oh my god. Sam, I… no wonder you came. It wasn’t me. I had nothing to do with it, I swear.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Look, I’m not an idiot. I know what I’m getting into. Here.” He pulled the note out of his pocket and handed it to Michael. “Pretty clear who was behind it.”

Michael’s face twisted as he read the note. He took a deep breath, handed the note back to Sam, and then delivered his right fist directly into his brother Luke’s eye. Gabriel jumped between them. “Whoa. WHOA! Don’t make me get Raph, huh? Luke, what did you do? Did you kill the girl?”

“Well, not personally, I paid someone to pay someone to do it. Come on, Michael, you know it was gonna come to that, why go through all the bullshit first?”

“Because Jess was an innocent who had nothing to do with anything, just the bad fortune to be involved with Sam? I can’t believe you. Go sit in the van.” Michael turned back to Sam. “I’m serious; I had nothing to do with your girlfriend’s death. I had planned to try whatever else I could think of before I started hurting anyone. I wasn’t even going to come after you yet, aren’t you missing school?”

“Well, yeah, but… does it matter?”

“Yes, it m… you think I’m going to pull you out.” Michael closed his eyes and waited a moment. “You’re finishing school. If it takes bribes for you to get into the law school you want, just let me know and I’ll arrange them. Don’t worry about the scholarship if you don’t get one, I’ve got you covered. You’re my husband, not my slave. If you don’t want to work or go to school, you don’t have to, but if you want to, you get to. Shall we get this over with?”

“What’s going to happen to Luke?”

“Depends what else I find when I start looking for other ways he’s been going behind my back. Likely prison for conspiracy to commit murder.”

“Did you have my dad killed?”

“I did not. He was still doing good work for us. However, Luke might have. I don’t know.”

“Okay. Let’s do this.”

Dean grabbed Sam’s arm. “Can I talk to you real quick?”

“Sure. What?”

“You sure you wanna go through with this?”

“I don’t think they’re gonna let us leave unless I do, Dean. Between this and running and trying to fight, never being able to sleep in peace? Michael seems reasonable, and I can always try to run later if I feel the need to. Things could be a lot worse. He was only promised one of us, so if something happens to me, he should leave you and Cassie alone anyway.” Dean opened his mouth to argue, but Sam shook his head. “It’s not great, but it’s the best option I’ve got right now.” He turned back to Michael. “I assume that’s what you brought your priest for, we’ve got Dean and Gabriel as witnesses, do this before I can back out?”

“Exactly. Father?”

Joshua stepped forward, holding a Bible, and did a very abbreviated version of the Catholic wedding. Everyone signed the license, and then Michael had another surprise. “There’s a redeye flight leaving for Modesto in an hour and a half. Will you be able to get yourself to Palo Alto from there, Sam?”

“Yes, but… uh… we just got married, don’t you want to…” Sam trailed off as Dean and Gabriel both slapped their hands over their ears.

Michael smirked. “Eventually, but this way, you’ve got a chance at getting to some of your classes. I can’t imagine you want to show up to school and have to explain to your friends what you’re doing with a husband so soon after Jess died, so I’m not going to go with you. I’ll meet you in Missouri for Christmas break and we can settle it then?”

“Why Missouri?”

“So you can have Christmas with your brother and not with mine. Go back to school, keep your grades up, let me know how the law school thing goes so I can help you if you need it.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt from my Birthday Bash: SaMichael Airport/Travel AU + Arranged Marriage

November had been a weird-ass month at school. It wasn’t just school, of course. It was dealing with losing Jessica. It was dealing with having his brother back in his life, along with his brother being married. It was balancing school with law school interviews and applications. With his grades and LSAT scores, he wasn’t worried about getting in, and thanks to his financial situation, he wasn’t worried about affording it.

That was the weirdest part. Before, it was being confident that his financial situation and outstanding application would get him a full-ride scholarship. Now, it was knowing that his husband wouldn’t even blink at the cost. Because he had a husband now, thanks to an arrangement his father had made when he was a baby.

December had been weird, too, but at least December was short. Now Sam was waiting at the airport in Chicago for the next leg of his flight. While he waited, he started on some reading for a class he was taking through the law school next quarter to finish his history minor. He was really looking forward to it – not just because of the interest in American law, but also as a preview of what law school would be like.

The person sitting beside him drew a flare of annoyance. He had a gigantic textbook out and earphones in, universal signals for “fuck off, I’m busy and don’t want to talk.” There was plenty of room at the gate. Why was someone sitting right beside him? The irritation died when he looked up, to be replaced with shock. He turned off Vince Vicente and took out his earphones. “Michael?!”

“You don’t have homework during breaks, so… what are you doing?”

“Well, actually, I do have homework, I have my senior project that I started in September and will be working on all year, but that’s not what I’m doing. I’m getting ahead. From talking to some of the current law school students, it sounds like getting ahead in the reading is a good idea for this class, so I’m doing that.” Sam held up the book. “What are you doing here? Don’t you have a private jet or something?”

“Actually, at the moment, it’s grounded. My pilot’s in jail, held without bail on murder charges.” Sam flinched. Luke. “I could get Raphael or Gabriel to fly it, or even one of my cousins or employees, but this way I get to fly with you and we can actually talk and figure some things out about how this is going to work without awkward questions about why you get a private flight out of Palo Alto.”

“What’s to figure out? Next three years I’m at law school, after that hopefully getting some work experience, you’re not going to let me get too high…”

“By which you mean…?”

“You’ve talked about me being your husband, not your slave, but there’s no way you would support me getting into a judgeship or political office that required background checks and thorough vetting. Nothing that would draw attention to your family and get people poking around your businesses.”

“Ah. No, that…” Michael shook his head. “There’s only so much coverup to be done with that, you’re right. I’m sorry, but that is how it has to be.”

“Yeah, well, if I’d tried they’d have gone poking around Dad and Dean, and even if Dad had been what I thought he was until I found out he was working for your family, I wouldn’t have wanted that.”

“Still.” Michael cleared his throat. “How have law school interviews gone?”

“Great. I don’t know that I’ll get a scholarship for Stanford, but I’m as sure as I can be that I’ll be accepted, and if I don’t get a scholarship, it’s because I don’t need one. Right?”

“Right. Is that your plan, then?”

“Yeah. Stanford Law School, and then I’d like to get into family law, advocating for people who get neglected or abused by their caretakers.”

“Like you and Dean were, after your mom’s death.”

“Exactly.” Sam looked down at his books. “I figure that’s a nice low-profile job, but it’ll make me feel like I’m doing some good in the world.” Act as a kind of counterbalance to what Michael’s family did, playing by their own rules and making their own laws and living as though they were servants of some all-powerful god, but he wasn’t going to say that to Michael’s face. “Anyway, I figure after law school, you’re gonna want me to move… wherever it is you’re based out of, I refuse to believe it’s Stull.”

“Stull’s the family home, but we all split time between there and one of our major headquarters. I usually work out of St. Louis or Chicago, but with Luke in jail, I’m spending a lot of time in LA and San Francisco now. Gabriel’s got New York, it just suits his style, and Philadelphia. Raphael goes between Dallas and Atlanta.”

“Where are you going to want me? If I’m working my own job, I’m not exactly free to travel with you…”

“Lawrence would probably be the best compromise between being available for family holidays in Stull, being in a city big enough to support you, although St. Louis and Chicago are both closer to your brother. Those are the ones I’d recommend. We don’t have to decide that now, and of course, it’s not like I can’t fly you wherever you want to go on a regular basis.”

“Even though I won’t fly with Luke, even if he gets out of jail?”

“There are other pilots. I can fly myself, but I wasn’t going to be able to fly the plane and talk to you.” Sam shrugged. Fair enough, then. “Anyway, figuring out how this is going to work… thinking short-term, are you going to be staying with your brother or joining me at the hotel?”

“Dean probably would let me stay, but I kind of assumed… I mean, we have consummation hanging over us, and…”

Michael burst into surprised laughter. “And it’s the 21st century, not the Middle Ages, Sam. Marriage isn’t a license to rape.”

“No, but… cheating’s kind of…” Sam blushed, ducking his head to let his bangs hide his eyes. Husband or not, this was a seriously awkward talk.

Michael’s laughter got even harder. “Boy do you really not know my family. All us kids end up in arranged marriages. Most of us end up cheating, with or without our spouse’s blessing. I’m not planning on it, not without your permission, but the decent among us tend to look the other way if our spouse cheats on us too. I wouldn’t be thrilled about it, but it’s not something I would punish you for as long as you follow certain rules. Are you even into men sexually?”

“Yeah, I’m bi, but…” Sam shook his head. “What are the rules?”

“Smile and lie to busybody family or business associates. Use protection. If something slips and you need to get tested, let me know so I can do what I need to do to protect myself. The protection should take care of this, but be as good as you can about not getting someone pregnant unless it’s on a contract so we have a kid to raise.” Michael jumped a little. “Speaking of which, I heard from this girl Luke was having an affair with. She found out she’s pregnant, and with Luke in jail and not able to take care of her and her kid, I agreed to do it. You should probably know about that. I’m going to be the godfather.”

“Be careful telling Dean about that. He’s gonna have a million jokes.” Sam looked down at his book. “Look, you’re hot, you’re my husband, you seem reasonable enough, I kind of have this… thing… about cheating. I’m not gonna lie and say that this would’ve been my first choice for my life, but it’s what it is, and I’m willing to go through with it. All of it. Sex is fine. I’ll go with you to the hotel so Dean doesn’t have to run the risk of hearing anything.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Maybe I Do Anyway](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17524178) by [LadyShadowphyre](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyShadowphyre/pseuds/LadyShadowphyre)




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